This pretty much summarizes the way I feel about January.
Scanned some more slides and negatives yesterday. Plants I had and lost, mostly.
Little Aethionema caespitosum. Or at least that was the name on the seed packet. Bloomed in February, with vanilla scented flowers.
Alyssum lepidotum. The rock surrounding it is pea gravel.
An unnamed astragalus from Turkey.
Astragalus hirsutus, also from Turkey.
An American astragalus, A. whitneyi. A number of species have these ridiculously inflated, multicolored pods. When the garden is open to visitors the pods mysteriously disappear. Another thing for which I could have hired a private investigator….the disappearing pods.
Gentiana verna, grown from seed. I still have some of these plants, but the clumsy half-wit who weeds the troughs accidentally ripped out one of these plants a few years ago.
Form from The Burren in western Ireland. Extremely blue, as is evident. Despite the fact that my great great great grandfather was Irish and a professional gardener (and was forced to leave the country under what were described as “unknown circumstances”), this one didn’t survive very long.
The negatives are from a trip to Cripple Creek and Victor we took in the 1980s. This is another place I haven’t been to since the last time I was there. I imagine it’s all changed now.
the miserable gardener 
The Astragalus and crucifers are all simply scrumptious: what a tragedy to have lost them! Not that my files aren’t littered with the carcasses of plants I’ve lost…loved and lost. Sounds like a great title for a series like this! I did my own sort of stint on that subject, come to think of it! Hope you have a fabulous 2013, Bob! Hope to see you soon,
Panayoti
I know, a tragedy; maybe if I told my sob story to the Feds they would issue me an import permit, if I tried again.
There are even more slides of plants that were here during the Golden Age of the rock garden. There are more pictures of plants than of “arty” things, where the slides are concerned; while the negatives are mostly puppy pictures.
Puppy pics always appreciated by pod people.
Yeah, but then I might want one. I’ve been talking about it for a couple of years now, but Chess says he likes being an only dog.
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